


Born From The Ashes

by ImperialAxis



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Romance, life and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27193780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialAxis/pseuds/ImperialAxis
Summary: I was still a reaper in training then, filled with all sorts of foolish notions about my position. In life, death had always seemed like such a cold, cruel thing, and I thought reapers were meant to be the personification of such coldness, that it was simply our nature. I went out of my way to create as much of a haunting visage as I could, my heavy black cloak lined with the feathers of a small unkindness of ravens, and my scythe long and wicked, far in excess of what my responsibilities demanded. I never stopped wearing the feathers, though my reason for wearing them changed a great deal.This is the story of that reason.
Relationships: Raven Branwen/Summer Rose
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	Born From The Ashes

The first time Summer Rose died, she did something that I had thought impossible. She surprised me.

I was still a reaper in training then, filled with all sorts of foolish notions about my position. In life, death had always seemed like such a cold, cruel thing, and I thought reapers were meant to be the personification of such coldness, that it was simply our nature. I went out of my way to create as much of a haunting visage as I could, my heavy black cloak lined with the feathers of a small unkindness of ravens, and my scythe long and wicked, far in excess of what my responsibilities demanded. I never stopped wearing the feathers, though my reason for wearing them changed a great deal.

Even among immortal beings, the phoenix is a strange creature. It may be better to call them semi-immortal, given that they can still find eternal death if their pyre should be destroyed before they are reborn from it. They are the only immortals who ever so much as set foot within the underworld, much less complete the long journey down the river Acheron.

From the beginning, Summer was an incredibly strange woman. The first step in a Reaper’s duty is to collect the soul as it leaves the body, easing the process of death. My first impression of the moment of Summer’s death was that it was pathetic, unworthy of a being such as herself.

In the moment that I arrived, Summer was disguised as a human and tied upright to a long wooden pole, surrounded by a jeering crowd. Her hair was spread out behind her in a blaze of oranges and reds that stood out beautifully against her dark skin and heavy muscle. As I watched, the teething mass of humanity began to throw objects at her, rotten fruit at first, then rocks. She didn’t flinch as the rocks began to leave behind their marks, creating streaks of red that flowed slowly down her face. 

One of the rocks hit Summer on the forehead. Seconds later, her eyes began to dim, struggling to stay open under the hail of cruel stones. I drew close then, and began to wait, my scythe poised in place, ready to sever the connection between her body and soul. It had always saddened me, seeing death dealt by human hands, even in life, though I sent my fair share of people Charon’s way in those times. So I severed the connection as early as I felt I could justify, and she fell into my arms like a lost lover as I dragged her down into the underworld, her body immolating behind us.

Summer’s soul shed the image of her disguise with a shudder and an airless sigh of relief as we descended, and by the time that we reached the shore of the Acheron, she had returned to her true form. Burning golden wings, tinged with streaks of red and white, flapped in place of her arms, and from her back sprouted a similar tail, though its colors were silver and orange. Her hair raised up in a golden plume and she shook her body one last time, stretching immaterial muscles and sending a rain of sparks to the earth around her.

“Hi,” Summer grinned at me like a child contemplating a piece of candy, “what’s your name?”

I simply beckoned her to join me in my gondola, crooking a single pale finger from beneath the heavy folds of my robe. 

“Alright, I’ll just call you Raven.” Summer started looking around the dimly lit caverns around us as I began to quant the gondola down the river. Her eyes were wide, and her smile seemed to burn as brightly as her flames. “This is so cool! I’ve never been down here before.”

“That was a rather foolish way to end up on your first journey.” I never planned on responding to her. Normally, I avoided speaking with my victims. It only ever seemed to make the weight of my work heavier, and to draw out the time that it took to reach their final destination.

“Nah, I don’t really mind it.” Summer sat and leaned back in the gondola, trailing her feathers through the water. “I’m happy with that death.”

“What is there to be happy about in being murdered?” I scoffed. She could have easily burnt through her bindings and flown away from her situation.

“You only saw the last minute or two, right?”

“We always approach in the final few moments, yes.”

“So basically, they all thought that I was a witch because I gave a few feathers to some sick kids. Which, really inaccurate, but witches are pretty cool so I don’t mind.” Summer said it like it was nothing. A phoenix’s feathers contain powerful healing magic, and their removal is very painful, though they do regrow when a phoenix is reborn.

“And why would you not simply fly away from such a belligerent mob?” It was refreshing to hear a story again, even if I already knew the ending. When I was young I delighted in the stories of mythical beasts and great heroes, and as I listened to Summer speak of her first death, it almost felt as if I was a part of one. 

“Weeell, when I say a few sick kids, I guess I mean more like a few dozen. Or maybe a few hundred? I don’t know, counting is hard and there was a really bad plague.” Summer sighed deeply, and looked up at the cavern ceilings. “And by that point I couldn’t fly. Although I don’t think that I would have anyway. If I hadn’t died there those people might have gone on to be extra suspicious of whoever came around to try and help people next, so I think it’s better this way anyway.”

I said nothing as I continued to guide us down the placid waters of the Acheron. I had nothing to say, lacked the words to express my amazement, though I still supposed that a life is an easy thing to throw away when so many of them still lie ahead. 

“So, do you know how much longer it’ll take before I’m back? I know on the surface it takes a few weeks, but I hear time doesn’t really pass the same way down here.” 

“The current is weakening. For a mortal, it would mean that we are near our destination, though I expect you will be reborn sometime before we get there.” 

“Cool. I wonder what that’s gonna feel like.” Summer stared almost expectantly at her body, and just as she did so, it began to flake away, as if burning to ash. “Ohhhh, tingly. Well, bye! It’s-” her disappearance was complete in the middle of her farewell, and I watched as her embers floated back up to the surface in a shaft of golden flame.

After that meeting I began to encourage conversation with those I reaped, only enough to draw forth the stories of their life, or their death. They were never cut off before they could finish, the underworld is strange in that way. Everything seems to happen precisely when it must, never before, never after. I wrote many of those stories down, and they became a treasure, rather than the burden I had expected them to be. However, the most precious of all were always those stories of Summer.

###### 

I would never have admitted to such at the time, but with every new soul I found myself hoping to once again meet with Summer. At the time it wasn’t because I had any particular attachment to her, so much as because she and her ilk were my only opportunities to speak with souls that were not truly dead. For an ordinary victim, the trip down the murky waters of the Acheron was a melancholic journey, and while listening to such morbid reminiscence was often very interesting, it was incredibly refreshing to listen to rare individuals who spoke of their futures in a place that was typically meant only for those with no future remaining.

I recognised her immediately when I returned to the world of the living. She stood in the middle of a throne room, decorated in purple and gold, at what appeared to a ball of some kind. Dozens of people stared as she revealed her true form in flash of fire. She addressed the entire room, though nearly all of its occupants recoiled in terror, including a great number of armed guardsmen. They barely refrained from attacking, but she seemed to be attempting to calm the room, and was working.

Then one of the guards fired at her, and a crossbow bolt pierced her heart. The man was immediately shouted at by those around him, but it was too late. I drew near, and watched Summer breathe her last words before collapsing to the ground and falling into my arms once again.

“Oh, hey. It’s you again.” Summed turned around in my arms, and hugged me as we descended beneath the earth once more. “I missed you.” She murmured into my ear.

“You... missed me?” I tried not to let Summer’s comment shake me as I assumed my traditional position at the front of my gondola.

“Mmmm.” She hummed almost dreamily as I pushed off from the banks of the river, already making herself at home in my vessel. “You’re special. My first time, you know?” She winked.

“That’s a rather shallow thing to assign meaning to.” I wasn’t interested in being cared about because of something that was merely chance.

“No, it’s not just that. You were a wonderful first time.” Summer smiled gently. “I really liked meeting you, and it’s really too bad that I don’t remember what happens down here while I’m alive.”

“Why?” I thought that I had muttered the sentiment too quietly to be heard by my passenger. It made no sense for someone like her to care about someone like me. I bore the weight of my life’s regrets, and still do to this day, though they no longer weigh as heavily upon me as they once did.

“You’re a great listener. You’re not like some of the others I’ve met, who just seem to be asking me questions about my life because it’s their job, or are resentful because I’m going to come back to life soon.” She looked at me in a way that I couldn’t understand at the time. Later, she would tell me that she was grateful for my relative stoicism in the face of a series of deaths that she both cherished and regretted.

“I try not to think about things like that too much. I’m just glad to be here, rather than in Tartarus.” I was happy in my position, as much as could be expected when bearing an eternal duty, without the pleasures of life or the flesh.

“You mean you used to be a mortal?” She tilted her head just like a bird, eyes widened curiously.

“Yeah, a long time ago. Charon himself ferried me, and he offered me this instead of judgement. I don’t know why.” I tried to concentrate on the gentle sounds of the Acheron, rather than dwell too heavily upon memories from that far back in my past.

“What was your life like?”

“It was free. But looking back, it wasn’t worth the things I did to be free.” I sighed. “I’d rather not talk about it more than that. How was your last life?”

“It was fun. I got to spend a lot of time with the fey. I was trying to get some humans to leave one of their forests alone, but, well, you saw.” Summer wrapped her wings around herself.

“Humans are shit. Trust me, I know.” I shrugged. “They’re probably going to end up destroying everything that matters one day, just because it’s different, or for their own greed.”

“They’re not that bad!”

“Tell me, how many times have you been killed by something that isn’t a human?”

“Never...” Summer’s face fell, and I suddenly felt guilty over something, only for her to spring right back up. “But they can be good too!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You’re a human, aren’t you?”

“Technically.” I wasn’t sure whether I still counted as human or not. “But you already know I’m no one to be proud of.”

“You said you weren’t when you were alive, but you’re better now than you were then, and you’re being nicer today than you were when you first got me.” 

“That doesn’t count. I’m dead. There’s nothing important here, it’s all just suffering, boredom, or merriment.” I pointedly turned away from Summer.

“But down there in the underworld is where the most important things are. Every last person who’s ever lived is down there. My daughter is down there.” Her words were choked by a sob.

I turned back, and saw not the brightly lit woman that I had first welcomed into my embrace, but someone older, and only beginning to understand the depths of their foolishness. “Your daughter?”

“I swore that I wouldn’t have another child when I started this life. In the one before this, I fell in love with a human, we had a daughter who was more human than phoenix. I thought that I could see her again when I was reborn...” 

“But?” I stopped quanting and sat by Summer’s side. In regards to navigation, I was unnecessary, the gondola could handle itself, I simply enjoyed having something to do with my hands.

“She’d already died. It took twenty years for me to come back, and I left her when she was only five.” Summer suddenly stopped holding herself up and fell into my lap, crying violently. The touch of her brightly burning wings would have burned through my skin and clothes had we been alive, but instead they simply felt soft. 

There had been many who cried over their lives and the lives of those around them in the past, but in the face of Summer’s tears I suddenly felt as if I was watching for the first time, helpless and inexperienced, staring in awe before a great beast of raw emotion that I had spent countless ages attempting to leave fallow and neglected within myself. 

The endless depths of the river murmured gently around us as we cried, a brief and yet timeless moment in which we were both simply two lost souls in mourning. 

It wasn’t until I could sense that ethereal point of no return bearing nearer that I found further words for my charge, and for myself. “The time is near. Come, find your strength. Return to life with your head held high, for both our sakes. And... What is your daughter’s name?”

“Ruby Rose.” Summer quickly wiped the tears from her face with my robe, and I made no protest to the act. What other choice was there, to sully her feathers?

“I will try to find her.” In truth, I had no idea how I might go about such a task, but I would try, and even succeed, before I saw her again. “So don’t give up on having children. Please.” It was an utterly meaningless plea. After all, Summer wouldn’t even remember it come her return to the realm of the living.

Summer looked at me as she gathered herself together, an unspoken question in her bright silver eyes. “Okay.” She started to burn up again, not breaking eye contact with me. “See you next time.” She smiled, and vanished into that same shaft of flame from before.

“Next time.” I murmured. I wanted there to be a next time.

###### 

I wanted to see Summer again. I wanted to hear her voice, listen to her words, bring her the message I had taken from her daughter. I hoped that maybe, if I found her at the end of my scythe once again, I might be able to hear of her newest life, and bring good news. Maybe I could find the news I secretly craved to hear in return.

A blessedly small amount of time passed before I found her again. Once again, it was not age that killed her, but humanity. My vision narrowed to a single point in the moment that I saw her again, nothing else mattered in that moment, least of all the cause of her death. My only care was that I kindly let the ashes of her old vessel scatter as I took her soul into my arms.

Summer clung tightly to me the moment that she was aware of her surroundings, her wings wrapped around me in a gesture I hadn’t experienced in ages untold. I returned the hug, happy to see the woman that I then considered to be an old friend, despite the fleeting nature of our meetings.

“Hey.” The feeling of her wings encircling me caused warmth to diffuse throughout my very soul.

“Raven.” Summer murmured the name into my shoulder like a prayer, and in that moment I determined that it would from then on truly be my name, rather than the one I had used in life.

We stayed like that through our descent. Summer seemed less energetic than usual, content to simply cling to me tightly, rather than excitedly babble as I would have expected. “I found Ruby.” I broke the silence as we stepped into my gondola once again.

“You did?” All at once, Summer’s eyes lit right back up and she jumped into action, bursting with energy. “How is she? What’s she doing?” The brightness of her flames briefly dimmed as she lowered her voice to ask a final, imploring question. “Does she hate me?”

“She wanted you to know that she’s proud of you, and she’s glad to have done what she did, because she got to live a life as someone who protects others, just like you did. Her only regret is that she didn’t live long enough to see you again.” I spoke without looking at Summer, instead choosing to begin our journey by hand. I didn’t want her to see the jealousy that smeared itself across my face like blood across a stone.

“Could you tell her that I’m proud of her too?” Summer looked up at me shyly from behind her own wing, eyes wide like some kicked puppy.

“Sure.” I narrowed my eyes and glared at the soul in my charge, searching for an explanation to her strange reaction. “What’s wrong?”

Summer quailed under my gaze, her composure thoroughly broken as she turned to stare distantly into the waters of the Acheron. “I don’t regret my lives. They’re a wonderful gift, and I don’t regret a single second of them.”

“You regret dying.” It wasn’t a question, it didn’t need to be.

“I had a son that time. I didn’t even know why at the time. In the moment before we last parted, I thought that I wanted to try again, but I didn’t even remember that conversation when I was alive. He was twelve, and now I’ve left another child behind, even if it’s hopefully not forever.” She hung her head.

“So what are you going to do about it?” I was interested to hear her answer myself.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s obvious that you insist on being a hero, what else were you expecting to get out of it but death?” I would know, being death itself. No great human dies old. The reprehensible ones make sure of that.

“That’s not... that doesn’t make any sense. People love heroes, they’re wonderful. Why should being a good person get me killed?” Summer’s lips pressed together tightly.

“You idiot.” I grabbed the white cloak clasped about her neck and pulled her up to my face, suddenly angry. “Are you really stupid and naieve enough that you think there’s anything other than a stab in the back and a sword in the dark at the end of the road for people who go out of their way for others’ sake? Have you forgotten that every single death you’ve died has happened because humanity could tell you were different, either for your species, or for daring to be a hero? What hero has ever lived happily into old age? What kind of idiot expects to be able to raise a family while living a life doomed to danger and tragedy? Now, you have a choice, start being smart and minding your own fucking business when you’re alive, or keep sacrificing yourself for people who hate your fucking guts.” I threw her down into the bottom of the gondola, disgusted. “What’ll it be?”

“I refuse.” Something hardened in Summer as she stood, glaring defiantly back at me.

“Excuse you?” What, she intended to refute reality?

“I’m going to keep trying. I get stronger and smarter every time I try, so I’m going to keep trying and someday I’ll be able to die of old age without sacrificing what’s most important to me!” She got in my face, metaphorically. Her height only brought her up to my neck.

“You’re saying that it’s more important to you that you be a self-sacrificing idiot than that you stay alive for your family? That’s selfish of you.” I turned my back on her and looked stoically out over the river, my arms crossed.

“I... hadn’t thought of it that way.” The gondola rocked slightly as Summer sat back down, her voice quiet once more. “I’m such an idiot.”

I turned around, eyeing her slumped form. I had an urge to dig deeper, to tear down this beautiful woman before me to the level at which I had lived my life. “Stop accepting death.”

“What?” Summer looked at me with bleary eyes.

“Stop letting me just take you away, fight tooth and nail to stay alive up until the moment I sever the link. You owe it to yourself and the people close to you in your lives. Watching you just accept that you’re going to die and leave behind a family makes me sick, even if you’ll probably come back in a few years.” I sat by her side and let my eyes wander across her face. “Do that, and you’ll have my respect.”

Summer stared at me with wide eyes for a moment as my words sunk in, and she grinned as if I had given her a precious treasure. She took my hands in her own, letting my scythe fall to the side. “Thank you. I’ll try to make sure we don’t see each other again for a long time, but no matter when we do, I promise I’ll hold my head high.”

“Good.” A selfish part of me hoped that it would be soon that we next met, but I had confidence that Summer would find a way to ensure that it was indeed a long time. It was then that I realized she was already beginning to turn to ash once again.

“Goodbye.” Summer leaned forward in some unknown pursuit as her body was vanishing, but the only thing that touched me before she was gone once again was a few small flecks of ash upon my lips.

###### 

It was indeed a very long time before I saw Summer again. I missed her dearly in a way that I didn’t understand, and hadn’t felt before. I longed for her presence, news of her lives, and for the freedom she brought from the thoughts that filled my mind in the lonely depths of the underworld’s nights. I dearly wished to be close to her, and found myself often visiting her daughter in Elysium in attempts to hear everything I could of those lives that Ruby knew of. I never dared to visit my own daughter.

When I next saw her in the mortal realm, Summer was upholding her word. She fought impossible numbers with a ferocity that I had never expected from her, and blood and ash soaked the ground around her, both her own and that of the faceless enemies who surrounded her. It was a desperate battle, doomed to defeat, and I feared for what would drive her to something like the scene before me.

I watched as she grew more and more bloodied, ready to release her when her body could no longer act and no sooner. She fought on through what should have been mortal wounds, and still I waited, patient in my tragic certainty that she would fall eventually. And finally she did, a seething tide of humanity overwhelming her as they charged into what appeared to be a cave. I severed the link.

Summer screamed in anguish as she saw me, and even as we began our descent beneath the earth, continued to fight, as if she could somehow claw her way up from death. On seeing the Acheron, she finally gave up, going limp in my arms.

“What was that?” I guided Summer to take a seat in the gondola and sat across from her myself, no longer bothering to maintain the facade of needing to pilot the vessel.

“That was a really important battle.” Summer smiled sadly, and for the briefest of moments I thought that I saw the colorful flames surrounding her flicker. “But, it’s okay. I did everything I could. It’s all up to the living now.” She sighed, then forcibly changed the topic of conversation. “Would you tell me about your life?”

“It’s not a life I’m proud of. You probably don’t want to hear about it.” I shook my head. The past was behind me, and I wanted it to stay there.

“I do though! I get that you must have done awful things, but it can’t have been all bad, because you came out of it, and I like you.” Summer took my hands once again and looked deep into my eyes. “I like you a lot.”

“You have terrible judgement.” I commented impassively, but for some reason Summer’s expression fell in response. “Fine, I’ll tell you the parts that matter.”

“I grew up a Branwen. We weren’t bandits, even though most of the settlements called us that. We were just a free people, who refused to accept the corruption around us. When a local baron started taking tribute by force, we would steal it back and kill him, along with his soldiers. We attacked slavers whenever we saw them, and we had a set of beliefs that we defended to our dying breaths. They were like a family to me and my brother, they raised us. And then, when we were of age, they sent us off to join the military and infiltrate it so that we could come back and teach them what we had learned.” I shuddered. I felt small, as if I could vanish into the depths of my cloak at any moment. As if sensing this, Summer wrapped a steadying wing around me, and I continued, not looking at her.

“It was a horrifyingly peaceful and happy experience. I nearly drove myself crazy with stress because I was afraid that I would go soft and get used to a life where I didn’t have to be suspicious of everyone around me, and I could just live and learn things. In the end I did go soft, I abandoned the Branwen and stayed with the kingdom, and with a man I had fallen in love with. We had a daughter. But the life I had chosen wasn’t as good as I thought it was, and I saw the same old corruption I had always hated seeping into my life. I saw that the things I was being told to do were defending it, but my work was of a kind that I couldn’t quit. I tried to explain it to my love, but he thought I was just being paranoid, and that it was okay that so many secrets were being kept. So I ended up running away, when Yang was only three. I went back to the Branwen and became their new leader in the traditional way. By killing the old. She was like a mother to me once.” I felt nauseous, I was reliving memories I had desperately avoided since I had died. I didn’t even understand why I was willing to do this, just because Summer had asked.

“For a long time, I fought for the survival of the tribe. But it felt empty, meaningless. I was lost, and I’d abandoned all that I really cared about, just because of my pride. One day, Yang found me, as an adult. I tried to get her to join the tribe, but I failed, so I settled for telling her what had driven me to leave. I was cruel to her, and I haven’t seen her since that day. Sometime after that, I died fighting. I don’t know if I could have lived longer, but I didn’t want to. There wasn’t anything left for me. All I have now is this duty to the dead, and some days it’s more of a burden than anything else was in life.” I took a deep breath, even though I had no need for oxygen. “So there, my miserable life story.”

“I think you do a wonderful job.” Summer spoke from beyond my line of sight as I stared steadfastly away from her. “You’ve really helped me.”

“That’s not part of the job.”

“Isn’t it though?” Summer hugged my side and I could feel her warm breath ghosting against my ear.

“Everything about this is so obtuse, it’s hard to say sometimes.” I sighed. “Don’t bother trying.”

“Trying what?”

“Trying to comfort me, or help me find some meaning in all of this. There isn’t any point, and I don’t deserve to be comforted.”

“Everyone deserves peace. Even if they have to wait a long time to find it, they deserve it. And you... you...” Summer flipped back the hood of my cloak, sending my hair cascading freely down the back as she gazed upon my face. “Gods, Raven. Don’t you understand how beautiful you are?”.

“What?” I made a choked noise as something squeezed my heart. I turned to look at her and Summer was so _close_ , so present, burning with life and intensity.

“I don’t mean your appearance, I mean _you._ You’ve been an incredible companion, a wonderful friend, and you’ve helped me so much. I want you to understand how much you mean to me.” Summer reached forward to brush some hair out of my face and behind my ear. I watched in shock as she leaned forward, and kissed me.

Before I could think to understand what was happening, I found myself kissing her back as I wrapped my hands around her waist. Her lips tasted of smoke and heat as I sank deeper into her embrace. I could feel Summer smiling even as we clung together as if for dear life in that kiss, and soon enough I would understand why she felt the need to cling so tightly, but until then I simply enjoyed the kiss with rapturous hunger.

That moment seemed to last forever, yet it would never be long enough. Eventually, Summer pulled back with a shy smile.

“I want to spend eternity with you.” As Summer spoke I could feel that moment drawing near once again, the time when she would once again be reborn, like the light of the sun that always returns after being covered by clouds.

“Me too.” I sadly trailed a hand across her cheek, certain that we were about to be separated once again. I closed my eyes and rested my head against her shoulder, barely holding back tears that I would be separated from her so soon, waiting desperately for the moment that she would vanish.

The moment passed, and for a moment I was sure that I was only imagining the comforting presence wrapped around me. My illusion was shattered by the sound of Summer sniffing.

“I don’t want to die.” The flow of the river changed, and I realized what I had seen in the moments before her death.

“You were defending your nest.” I growled. “That scum, they murdered you. Eternally.”

Summer nodded, her head pressed against my chest. “Don’t worry about them. It’s okay, really.”

“Bullshit.” I snarled. “You can’t die. That’s... it’s too cruel.” I wanted to kill every last one of them.

“I’m sorry.” Summer didn’t let go of me. “I know I let you down.” 

“You did no such thing!” I grabbed her by the shoulders and stared her down, shocked by her apology. “It’s those pieces of filth that did this, I saw you fighting desperately to live.” I pulled her close and let her begin to cry into my robes. “It’s okay.” I stroked her hair, as comfortingly as I could. “It’s okay.” Only then did I realize she had meant it when she offered to spend eternity together.

Summer sighed. “There was still so much I wanted to do.” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “Do you still want to be with me?”

“Yes.” The woman before me had changed my death. I couldn’t describe how, but I knew it. After only four fleeting meetings, I loved her. “Come on, I’ll show you where I dwell when I’m not working.”

There was a gentle thud as I willed the gondola to ground itself on the shore. 

“Okay.” Summer took my hand, and we haven’t lost each other since. We faced eternity together, and I found my peace with her.


End file.
